Commentary | ALAN BALUTIS, PATRICK SPENCER
ALAN BALUTIS is senior director and
PATRICK SPENCER is director of Cisco
Systems' Internet Business Solutions Group.
NORMAN JACKNIS is director of IBSG's
Public Sector Group.
As experienced teleworkers, we
nd ourselves somewhat surprised
by the widespread attention the
general media has been paying to
the subject recently.
Telework is in the news because
of decisions by Yahoo, Best Buy and
others to end the practice within
their organizations. According to the
memo sent to employees by Yahoo s
human resources department (and
later leaked to the media), "Some of
the best decisions and insights come
from hallway and cafeteria discus-
sions, meeting new people, and
impromptu team meetings. Speed
and quality are often sacri ced when
we work from home."
It is interesting how polarizing
the term "telework" has become. At
one end of the spectrum are advo-
cates who believe telework offers
answers to a number of major
business challenges --- and there is
growing evidence to support this
contention. There is also ample
evidence to suggest that productiv-
ity goes up, workers are happier,
and people achieve better work/life
balance when they have the option
to telework.
At the other end of the spectrum
are those who question the value
of telework from the perspective of
organization and culture, informal
and interactive learning, the chal-
lenges it creates for coordinating
and organizing work, and others.
Furthermore, there is research
that supports the argument that
physical proximity stimulates
innovation, one of the purported
reasons behind the recent deci-
sions to end telework. For example,
a study of some 35,000 academic
papers found that the best, most
widely cited research came from
co-authors who worked less than 10
meters from one another.
The same study, however, sup-
ports coworking (another form of
teleworking) and its role in inno-
vation. "How closely they worked
mattered as much as, if not more
than, their af liation," said the
study s author, Isaac Kohane of Har-
vard Medical School. "Coworking s
combination of casual relationships
and shared spaces can lead to some
of an employee s most fruitful
collaborations."
In other words, sharing space
with anyone, not just your organi-
zational colleagues, can promote
innovation.
In contrast, there are those like
Melissa Thomas-Hunt, a profes-
sor at the University of Virginia s
Darden School of Business, who
believe that proximity does not
necessarily lead to better collabo-
ration. According to her, the rise
of email and other technology has
reduced the need for face-to-face
encounters.
"The reality is that we re often in
the same of ce space, and yet we re
sending emails to one another," she
said. "Any time you have individu-
als trying to work together, there
is potential for a communication
breakdown."
The return on investment for
telework is quite strong. According
to the Telework Research Network,
if employees with appropriate jobs
who want to work from home did
so half the time, companies could
save more than $500 billion a year
in costs related to real estate, elec-
tricity, absenteeism, turnover and
productivity.
And if the desire to increase
innovation is driving decisions to
eliminate teleworking, there are
other strategies, such as coworking,
to consider before ending telework
altogether.
Only time will tell if eliminat-
ing telework at Yahoo, Best Buy
and elsewhere will bring bene ts
to those companies in the form of
increased innovation, greater pro t-
ability and/or higher stock prices.
Leaders have to do what they
believe is right for their organiza-
tions at any given moment. How-
ever, they also have to consider
the organizations long-term needs.
Elimination of telework is a step
backward during a broader trans-
formation of work. ■
Another take on the telework debate
Recent decisions to eliminate telework at major companies show
a lack of understanding of the practice's bene ts
There are other
strategies, such
as coworking, to
consider before
ending telework
altogether.
AND NORMAN JACKNIS
April 30, 2012 FCW.COM
15